Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs Musalia Mudavadi during an interview at his office at Kenya Railways Headquarters Nairobi, Nairobi on January 18, 2025.
Kenya's diplomatic community is celebrating the government's decision to incorporate the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs into the Security Sector Working Group, seeing it as a new window to ease the flow of functions.
The decision, approved by the Cabinet this week, comes almost ten years after the proposal was first made by a team of diplomats.
They argued that their work as envoys had been hampered by routine budget constraints, convoluted checkpoints and a generally misunderstood role for the foreign ministry.
Now they believe that moving the ministry from the public administration to the security sector could address these concerns.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who is also the Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, was the first to celebrate the decision, arguing that it would solve some of the problems associated with slow responses.
“This major step will enhance the budget of the Ministry and subsequent effectiveness in the Ministry’s operations,” said Jacob Ng’etich, Mudavadi’s Press Secretary, on Wednesday, January 22.
“The move to have the Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs included in the Security Sector budget framework will seek to strengthen the country’s global presence.”
The classification of government departments is a tradition in most UN member states.
Formally known as the Classification of Functions of Government (COFOG), it was first drafted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 1999, but has been published by the UN as a guide to categorising ministries into sector groups to avoid duplication, improve coordination, planning and budgeting, and strengthen efficiency.
According to one manual, this classification follows divisions, groups and classes.
Typically, divisions "describe the broad objectives of government, while groups and classes both define the means by which these broad objectives are achieved," the manual explains.
Most governments divide their ministries and departments into defence and security, general public services, social clusters, economic affairs, environmental protection, health, and culture and religion.
In Kenya, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has traditionally been considered a public administration service, but it is part of the National Security Council (NSC) Kenya, a body that oversees the country's national security and includes the President and Deputy President.
The NSC also includes the cabinet secretaries for defence and internal security, the attorney general, the chief of the Kenya Defence Forces, the director general of the National Intelligence Service and the inspector general of the National Police Service.
The ministry says the fact that it handles many sensitive matters, including presidential travel, regional mediation and consular responses to emergencies, means it has often been undervalued.
“Also noteworthy is that the ministry co-ordinates official president foreign travel. It is notable that a number of presidential foreign visits arise out of emerging situations and demands which may not have been factored in the budget,” Mudavadi’s office said of the decision.
It is unclear how much more the ministry will get in the budget.
But officials have appeared before Parliament in the past to ask for more money, only to be denied.
Foreign travel alone costs about Sh5 billion a year. Running a foreign mission costs about Sh200 million per mission per year for rent, salaries and other facilities for the envoys.
The ministry often has no budget for consular emergencies, such as when Kenyans are stranded in Lebanon or Sudan during wartime.
Some experts say the reclassification is important to address these concerns.
“The ministry performs coordination of most of the security-related functions, and it is even oversighted (sic) by parliamentary committee that groups Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations together,” Nasong’o Muliro, a foreign and security specialist, and university lecturer, in Nairobi told Nation.Africa on Friday, January 24.
“The Ministry was strategically looking for raising of its budget ceiling to deal with deteriorating missions and assets abroad, salaries and operations, just to name a few.”
According to Mudavadi, Kenya’s vision to assert itself in the region and beyond will cost money in strengthening diplomatic presence, investing in special envoys, fostering peace and stability, “and safeguarding the interests of citizens both at home and abroad.”
Some serving diplomats told Nation.Africa that the reclassification was long overdue
“Foreign affairs deals with the most sensitive of matters for the government,” one diplomat explained, choosing to speak anonymously because they are not authorized to speak publicly of internal affairs.
This, he argued, would help prevent infiltration by outside entities by linking foreign affairs to the country's security.
“Foreign affairs functions are not just about deploying, ambassadors, and meaningless state visits and travel,” the official explained.
But there are also red flags, said another official who helped push for the change: Placing the ministry in the security sector could also create a window to avoid accountability by simply cloaking spending or decisions as national security.
“There is that possibility of hiding the uses of money,” the second envoy warned.
The solution, most of the diplomats argue, should lie in amendments to the Foreign Service Act, as well as the upcoming Foreign Policy Sessional Paper, which should cement the Foreign Policy the Cabinet endorsed this week.
Both documents will be presented to the National Assembly, which is expected to debate the qualifications of envoys, spending on programmes and the general functions of the Foreign Service.
It will be the first time in Kenya's history that a foreign policy will be tabled in parliament.
